Requiem for Mini-DV

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 2003)

This may be the pinnacle of Mini-DV. In the past few years a number of directors have tried their hands at making feature films using Mini-DV and each has had a different vision of how the medium is best used. Mostly, though, they've all tried to exploit it as a nimble and cost-effective alternative to film. With this movie the medium is used for its unique visual appeal and the cinematographer and editor have worked together to exploit those qualities in a way I haven't seen anyone else work. Years from now I feel like this will come to be regarded as the high-water mark for Mini-DV. Now that High Definition consumer camcorders are starting to become available for about the same price as Mini-DV I think the days of the Mini-DV feature are numbered, but leave it to Danny Boyle to show everyone else how it could be done.
Danny Boyle brings us an $8 million zombie movie where every penny is up on the screen. The acting is all top-notch. The locations are all well-considered. In the middle of another summer full of swollen special-effecs films, Danny Boyle brings us the antithesis of hollow summer fare. Here's a film where the story and the performances are more important than the special effects budget or starpower and the end result is a movie that outclasses efforts with 20 times its budget.

Finally, there's the place in history this project earns as a zombie movie. Ever since George Romero wanted to make I Am Legend, couldn't acquire the rights and changed the vampires to zombies, we've had sort of an international zombie underground. Eventually, even a remake of I Am Legend decided to follow Romero's lead and The Omega Man featured its own variant of zombies. This project falls into the techno- zombie category of films like The Omega Man and Warning Sign and it proves to be the best contribution to the genre in decades. Boyle has given the world its first great zombie movie of the new millennium. Thanks Danny.